Activities and crafts for 11-year-olds
Eleven-year-olds have outgrown most craft kits but not the urge to make things. These projects respect that: proper engineering challenges, coding puzzles, film-making and science that links to what they are starting to learn at secondary school.
34 projects to try
Cardboard Gravity Coin Sorter
Children discover physical sorting algorithms by using gravity and cut-out sizes to separate mixed coins automatically.
Chevron Friendship Bracelet
Knotting embroidery threads in a repeating pattern teaches sequencing and pattern-making, and rewards patience with a wearable stripey band.
Mummified Apple Experiment
Children test how the ancient Egyptians preserved mummies by burying apple slices in salt and bicarbonate of soda for a week. The salts draw water out of the apple, and without water the things that cause rot cannot grow. It is a real fair test with measuring and recording.
Shoebox Solar Oven
Children explore renewable solar energy and heat absorption by building a simple oven that traps light and converts it into thermal energy. This introduces fundamental thermodynamic concepts such as insulation, reflection, and radiation in a delicious, hands-on way.
Binary Code Name Bracelet
Threading two colours of bead in patterns of eight shows how computers store every letter as a secret code of just two symbols. Children discover that ones and zeros can spell out anything, including their own name.
🔒 PremiumEgg-Drop Challenge
Cushioning and slowing a fall (forces and impact) to protect a fragile object.
Secret Spell Scroll
Children invent a symbol code, write a hidden spell in white wax crayon and reveal it with watery paint. They learn how a substitution cipher works and why wax resists water, so the paint only soaks into the bare paper.
Crispy Meringue Ghosts
Whisking egg whites traps thousands of tiny air bubbles, and sugar holds them in place so the foam stands in ghostly peaks. Slow baking dries the foam into a crisp shell. Children see a liquid turn into a foam and then a solid.
Shoe Box Eclipse Projector
Children explore optics and astronomy by discovering how light travels in straight lines through a pinhole to project a safe, clear image of the Sun during an eclipse.
Recycled Tube Kaleidoscope
Children learn about light reflection and optical symmetry by creating repeating mirrored patterns.
Star Projector Jar
A small light inside a pricked foil jar throws tiny beams onto the walls, showing how light travels in straight lines and turning your room into a peaceful planetarium.
🔒 PremiumWater Filter from a Bottle
Filtering removes bits from dirty water; layers trap different sizes of dirt (but don't make it safe to drink).
Marker-Pen Tie-Dye Shirt
Watching marker ink spread through fabric with a splash of rubbing alcohol shows how liquids carry colour along fibres, making swirling firework patterns.
Simple Sundial
The sun moves across the sky, so shadows move too — you can tell the time by them.
Pumpkin Seed Scientists
Scooping out a pumpkin becomes a science lesson: guess how many seeds are inside, count them in tens, test which ones sink or float, and save some to grow next spring. It covers estimating, counting and how plants make seeds.
Balloon Ghost Zip Line
When air rushes out of the back of the balloon, it pushes the ghost forward along the string. That is Newton's third law in action: every push has an equal push the other way, the same idea that launches real rockets.
Moon-Crater Impact Tray
Dropping balls into a tray of flour shows how meteorites smashing into the Moon made its craters, and lets you test how the size and drop height of a space rock changes the crater it leaves.
🔒 PremiumSalt or Sugar Crystal Garden
Dissolving, saturation and evaporation - crystals form as water leaves behind the salt or sugar.
No-Sew Knotted Fleece Cushion
Tying fringes into knots to join two layers shows how fabric can be fastened without any sewing at all, and builds neat, patient finger work.
Tin-Can Telephone
Sound travels as vibrations along the tight string from one cup to the other.
Ice Cream in a Bag
Salt makes ice melt at a colder temperature, pulling heat from the cream so it freezes.
Cardboard Marble Run
Gravity, slopes and speed - steeper ramps make the marble go faster.
Sunshine Berry Smoothie
Measuring and blending shows how separate ingredients mix into something new, and tasting as you go teaches children to balance sweet and tangy flavours.
🔒 PremiumGhost Story Stop-Motion
Moving a model ghost a tiny bit between each photo and then playing the photos quickly creates the illusion of movement, the same trick used in animated films. Children plan a short story, practise patience and learn how frames per second work.
No-Bake Cocoa Energy Balls
Rolling and measuring builds hand strength and early maths, and children see how sticky oats and honey bind a mixture together without any cooking.
Junk Robot
Design and imagination - planning a build from the parts you have.
🔒 PremiumBalloon Hovercraft
A cushion of escaping air reduces friction, so the disc glides almost freely.
🔒 PremiumClimbing Spider String Toy
Pulling the strings one at a time makes the spider climb because the angled straws grip the string with friction on one side and slide freely on the other. It is a hands-on way to explore forces, friction and angles.
🔒 PremiumHanging Planet Mobile
Painting the eight planets in order and hanging them by size helps you picture the real Solar System, and shows that the planets are hugely different in size and distance from the Sun.
🔒 PremiumCardboard-Loom Woven Mat
Weaving over-and-under on a homemade loom teaches the basic structure of all woven cloth and builds rhythm, focus and fine motor control.
🔒 PremiumNaked (Rubber) Egg
Vinegar (an acid) dissolves the hard shell, leaving the bendy membrane - and the egg swells as water moves in (osmosis).
🔒 PremiumRed Cabbage Colour Changer
Red cabbage juice is a natural indicator - it turns pink in acids and blue/green in alkalis.
🔒 PremiumWormery in a Jar
Worms mix and tunnel through soil — you can watch them build layers and help the garden.
🔒 PremiumBread in a Bag
Yeast is alive — it eats sugar and burps gas that makes the dough rise.